Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

1994

Civil Procedure

Montana

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Law

Evaluating Federal Civil Justice Reform In Montana, Carl W. Tobias Jan 1994

Evaluating Federal Civil Justice Reform In Montana, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

The Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990 (CJRA) has reached the mid-point of its implementation nationally and in the Montana Federal District Court. At this juncture, one of the most important aspects of statutory effectuation is evaluation of the experimentation that federal district courts have conducted under the legislation. The timing is particularly propitious in the Montana federal district because the court recently completed the annual assessment of statutory implementation that the CJRA requires. These developments in civil justice reform, particularly relating to evaluation of the experimentation which has occurred, warrant examination. This Article undertakes that effort. The Article first …


Recent Federal Civil Justice Reform In Montana, Carl W. Tobias Jan 1994

Recent Federal Civil Justice Reform In Montana, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

The Montana Federal District Court has continued to experiment with nearly all of the procedures that the court included in the civil justice expense and delay reduction plan which it officially adopted during April 1992 under the Civil Justice Reform Act (CJRA) of 1990. The most important procedures are automatic disclosure, co-equal assignment of cases to Article III judges and magistrate judges located in Billings, and rather close judicial case management. The judicial officers, who include three active and one senior Article III judges and three full-time magistrate judges, and many Montana attorneys who practice in federal court have now …


1993 Federal Rules Amendments And The Montana Civil Rules, Carl W. Tobias Jan 1994

1993 Federal Rules Amendments And The Montana Civil Rules, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

On December 1, 1993, the most comprehensive package of amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (Federal Rules) in their half-century history became effective. Although the revisions include a number of changes that are relatively innocuous, modifications in Rule 11 governing sanctions and Rule 26 requiring mandatory pre-discovery or automatic disclosure were and remain controversial. The amendment to Rule 11 altered the 1983 revision of that Rule which had proved to be the most controversial amendment ever developed. The amendment to Rule 26 prescribing automatic disclosure was the most controversial formal proposal changing the Rules in their history. These …